Police Union Mounts Billboards To Highlight Manpower Shortage
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police thinks all the publicity surrounding the NATO Summit is a good time to publicize its beef with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bob Conway reports, the FOP has purchased billboard space on the Kennedy, Dan Ryan and Stevenson expressways, along with ad space on some Chicago Transit Authority buses, 'L' stops and digital screens.
The union is trying to call attention to its demand for the hiring of more officers.
Noting a 50 percent increase in homicides, FOP President Mike Shields tells the Chicago Sun-Times the billboards are not necessarily an effort to embarrass the mayor, he says 20 homicides in one weekend should be an embarrassment in itself.
Shields tells the Sun-Times the mayor has gone back on a promise to hire more officers, and manpower at the Police Department is down about 2,000.
Police Supt. Garry McCarthy says it is not the number of officers, but how they're used.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bob Conway reports
